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Category: Eugene Ruyle (June)

The Peace and Freedom Party supports Eugene Ruyle’s write-in campaign in the 15th State Assembly District. For information on voting for write-in candidates, see this article. For a map of his district, see the bottom of this page.

The following statement was provided by the candidate, who is responsible for its content.

Eugene Ruyle

A veteran and grandfather for peace, Eugene Ruyle is the Peace and Freedom Party write-in candidate in the recently re-gerrymandered 15th State Assembly District, which runs from San Pablo and Richmond through Berkeley and North Oakland to Emeryville and Piedmont, and includes the Cal campus. Gene is a retired Anthropology professor who supports the Peace and Freedom Party Platform and Occupy Oakland. A Cal graduate, he wants to help build the movement to democratize and de-militarize the University of California as part of the larger movement to shut down the war machine, provide free education and health care for everyone, defend our personal freedoms, and protect our Mother Earth.

But let’s face it. Given the rigged political system we have in the United States, it’s unlikely that anyone can defeat a popular Democrat like the incumbent Nancy Skinner. As Democrats go, Skinner is not particularly obnoxious. She supports better funding for education and opposes pepper-spraying student demonstrators — as one would expect from a liberal Berkeley politician. But she is also a leader of the pro-capitalist, war-addicted Democratic Party that is busy bailing out banks, passing repressive legislation, and drone-bombing innocent people in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere.

The odds favoring Skinner are so overwhelming that Republicans don’t even bother to run. This means that a write-in candidate such as Ruyle can come in second and, under the new “Top Two” system of Prop 14, appear on the November ballot. This provides an opportunity to raise the important issues that Democrats refuse to address, such as shutting down the war machine and de-militarizing and democratizing the University of California.

However, electing a few socialists to the State Legislature won’t solve the problems we face in California. Our problems will continue until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of our Mother Earth and the machinery of production, abolish the capitalist system, and build a global socialist world in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.

The 15th Assembly District includes portions of western Contra Costa and Alameda Counties from Hercules in the north to Piedmont and parts of Oakland in the south. For a much higher quality map that you can zoom in on, click here. For a larger image of this map, click here.

Register and vote

To vote on November 6 you must register by October 22. You can do so online if you have a valid drivers license or DMV id card. When you register to vote, please register with the Peace and Freedom Party.

To see your ballot and find information on all the candidates, visit Smart Voter.